Talk:A Bridge Too Far

Still working on this page... more to come....

K98k

quote: A boy drafted into the Wehrmacht fights the Americans with his K98 - 7.92x57mm (this is actually no K98k, it is a type of Mauser System, but look at the rear sight. (Are you sure? It just looks like the rear sight is pulled all the way up for a high angle of fire, something a soldier would NOT do when engaging targets closer than a hundred yards, but this is a last ditch barely teenage conscript so I would assume he's not very well trained.....)

Yes, I´m sure, on the other pic it is better to see, they use mauser system rifles, but not all of them were K 98k. the k98k has a relativly flat rear sight, the rifles on this http://www.abload.de/img/btf_k98_05a50mr82d2.jpg pic, use another rearsight, called bogenvisier in german. same rifle type the boy used.

they are looking like shortened Gewehr 98. this was a modification made in big numbers to solve rifle shortage at the end of the war.

pic of gewehr 98: http://www.abload.de/img/gew98o1xe.jpg look at the rear sight! the rifle sights in the movie are not pulled up.

pic of a real k98k: http://www.mauser.org/rifles/K98k%20German/GermanK98-02_1200.jpg

note the small differences. ;-)

Thanks for the pics, but thats irrelevant because, The Pics of the K98 on IMFDB and the Geweher 98 on IMFDB are of my guns.... So I know what these rifles look like. Again I'm not contesting the difference between the two rifles, I ALREADY KNOW the difference since I own both of them, but I'm saying that the screenshot can be deceptive. I will look for possible better pics from the film. MoviePropMaster2008 17:26, 17 April 2009 (UTC)

M1911

Actually, the .455 Colt M1911s (not A1s) were purchased in WW1 for the Royal Flying Corps / RAF, but they were chambered in .455 Webley & Scott Auto as used in the M1913 Webley & Scott auto issued to the Royal Navy and Royal Horse Artillery (later passed on to the RAF). Most ended up being converted to .45ACP so they could use the same ammo as the many M1911A1s acquired as lend-lease, issued mainly to paras and commandos before the Canadian-made Hi Powers started arriving in early 1945.

So you're saying that the M1911s would probably by .45 acp chambered at this time anyway. Correct? that's good to know. I know for a fact that the film used .45 acp blanked guns for the actors. MoviePropMaster2008 17:26, 17 April 2009 (UTC)

Definately would have been a .45. The .455s were purchased for the RAF because they chambered the same round as the Webley & Scott autos they'd received from the army - who'd gotten rid of them precisely because they didn't chamber the standard round. Para troops were army, even the glider pilots were - only the Germans put airborne forces under the airforce umbrella. The Brits acquired M1911A1s lend-lease and issued them mostly to Para and Commando units. It's probably a mistake giving Uruqhart a 1911 and not an A1, though at the time he joined British officers purchased their own sidearm and he might have bought a 1911 and kept it after the practice was abolished. - Nyles

Sure it's very plausible that the general had purchased a 1911 chambered in .455 W&S Auto. Why not? Generals (even in the airborne) aren't expected to actually engage in combat.So logistics wouldn't really be a concern for him. A couple boxes of pistol ammo in his Bergen (isn't that what the Brits called ther rucksack?)and a couple spare magazines on his pistol belt and he's good to go. If a general is shooting his sidearm something has gone really wrong. Case in point the sequence where he is trapped in the city and unable to reach his command would be an example of something going really wrong. I know I'm working really hard here, but I like the movie. --Jcordell 04:21, 9 December 2009 (UTC)

Also, I seem to remember in a few scenes seeing German soldiers carrying Gewehr 98s - appropriate for rear-echelon garrison troops.

If you can remember the scene or timecode, I will screencap them if I can MoviePropMaster2008 17:26, 17 April 2009 (UTC)

if you watch 2:55:58 of this movie you will see germans with garands